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John Luther Adams - One That Stays All Winter

 

“One that Stays All Winter” is a contemporary composition by John Luther Adams in which the instruments are used to create a captivating sonic environment imitating nature. The harmony of various musical instruments composes a natural landscape to be pictured in the listener’s mind. Adams creates a sonic environment with the help of minimalist elements, playing with our senses and imagination. He uses music to come up with an imaginative landscape that involves some seagulls chattering for the first two and a half minutes and then two people having a conversation that is impossible to follow. The indistinct chatter of humans is accompanied by a high volume of bird calls for the mid-part of the piece, which leaves itself to the sole bird calls towards the end.

Sustained textures and harmonies of the composition create a kind of meditative atmosphere where the listener finds themselves near the sea with many seagulls and two people next to them chattering. It is a pretty extraordinary way to include nature in a musical piece without recording the sounds of nature but using musical instruments, especially string ones, to create a natural landscape. The piece's name suggests that it is wintertime; therefore, even before listening to it, the audience receives a hint of the setting. On the other hand, the ‘one’ staying all winter is not described by Adams, so it can be the person viewing the landscape and hearing all these, or one of the seagulls we hear towards the end of the composition that has the solo performance of chattering.

All in all, imitating the sounds of nature stands out here as a brilliant idea to pay attention to the ecological problems or nature’s beauty in a way to at least be more aware of what it is like to hear nature’s needs. To me, Adams depicts the true nature of human beings in an ideal world in “One That Stays All Winter”, which is neglected by urban life.

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